Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating chronic disease with no known cure. Global estimates in 2020 suggest there are approximately 650 million people age 40 and older with knee OA. Having a significant socioeconomic impact, OA is associated with increased all-cause mortality and prolonged morbidity, leading to lost work productivity and reduced quality-of-life. As such, timely delivery of treatment is essential to mitigate symptoms and slow disease progression. All clinical guidelines for knee OA highly recommend physical (e.g. exercise, weight management), psychosocial (e.g. self-efficacy and self-management programs), and mind-body (e.g. yoga, Tai Chi) approaches as key first-line treatments for OA management. Yet an outstanding need in the field is effective implementation of these interventions to target those populations most likely to benefit. Implementation science is the study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings into routine practice. As implementation science continues to evolve, its application to chronic diseases such as OA has the potential to revolutionize patient care by identifying and addressing barriers to successful uptake of evidence-based practice.
The OA field has reached a point where evidence to support the benefits of key interventions is overwhelming, but evidence-based strategies for successful implementation of those interventions as first-line therapy are only emerging. For example, with roughly 30 years of data demonstrating the positive effects of exercise for OA, only recently have community-based programs with exercise components gained international recognition [e.g. Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark (GLA:D®)]. To avoid this delay in implementing interventions, including psychosocial and body-mind approaches, the outstanding needs in the field are concerted efforts to debunk pervasive myths (e.g. OA results from “wear-and-tear”), to increase the use of recommended treatments, and to stop the overuse of expensive, ineffective or unproven treatments. To address the evidence-practice gap in OA care, improved ways to rapidly and reliably translate research findings from clinic to community are needed. This Research Topic seeks to highlight studies focused on implementing clinical guidelines to improve the management of chronic musculoskeletal conditions. Though our focus is on OA, we welcome articles related to rheumatoid arthritis and other types of arthritis where non-surgical and non-pharmacological interventions are indicated.
This Research Topic welcomes translational research from theory development, implementation science, evidence-based practice, to clinical service provision in the musculoskeletal field (OA or other types of arthritis). Submissions may include original research articles, reviews, methods, perspectives, and hypothesis-driven papers addressing topics (whether applied or theoretical) such as, but not limited to:
• Application of implementation science frameworks to OA management (e.g. measures to assess implementation of OA interventions)
• Evidence-based OA management programs in community settings (e.g. novel models or pathways of OA management program implementation)
• Implementation strategies for educational or training programs for health care professionals delivering OA care
• Provider, system, or policy approaches to improving implementation of OA interventions (e.g. cost-effectiveness studies)
• Public and patient engagement in the co-design of OA management programs (e.g. considerations for addressing equity in care delivery)
• Practices that perpetuate and strategies to mitigate pervasive myths, inconsistencies in clinical guidelines, and overuse of expensive, ineffective or unproven treatments
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating chronic disease with no known cure. Global estimates in 2020 suggest there are approximately 650 million people age 40 and older with knee OA. Having a significant socioeconomic impact, OA is associated with increased all-cause mortality and prolonged morbidity, leading to lost work productivity and reduced quality-of-life. As such, timely delivery of treatment is essential to mitigate symptoms and slow disease progression. All clinical guidelines for knee OA highly recommend physical (e.g. exercise, weight management), psychosocial (e.g. self-efficacy and self-management programs), and mind-body (e.g. yoga, Tai Chi) approaches as key first-line treatments for OA management. Yet an outstanding need in the field is effective implementation of these interventions to target those populations most likely to benefit. Implementation science is the study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings into routine practice. As implementation science continues to evolve, its application to chronic diseases such as OA has the potential to revolutionize patient care by identifying and addressing barriers to successful uptake of evidence-based practice.
The OA field has reached a point where evidence to support the benefits of key interventions is overwhelming, but evidence-based strategies for successful implementation of those interventions as first-line therapy are only emerging. For example, with roughly 30 years of data demonstrating the positive effects of exercise for OA, only recently have community-based programs with exercise components gained international recognition [e.g. Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark (GLA:D®)]. To avoid this delay in implementing interventions, including psychosocial and body-mind approaches, the outstanding needs in the field are concerted efforts to debunk pervasive myths (e.g. OA results from “wear-and-tear”), to increase the use of recommended treatments, and to stop the overuse of expensive, ineffective or unproven treatments. To address the evidence-practice gap in OA care, improved ways to rapidly and reliably translate research findings from clinic to community are needed. This Research Topic seeks to highlight studies focused on implementing clinical guidelines to improve the management of chronic musculoskeletal conditions. Though our focus is on OA, we welcome articles related to rheumatoid arthritis and other types of arthritis where non-surgical and non-pharmacological interventions are indicated.
This Research Topic welcomes translational research from theory development, implementation science, evidence-based practice, to clinical service provision in the musculoskeletal field (OA or other types of arthritis). Submissions may include original research articles, reviews, methods, perspectives, and hypothesis-driven papers addressing topics (whether applied or theoretical) such as, but not limited to:
• Application of implementation science frameworks to OA management (e.g. measures to assess implementation of OA interventions)
• Evidence-based OA management programs in community settings (e.g. novel models or pathways of OA management program implementation)
• Implementation strategies for educational or training programs for health care professionals delivering OA care
• Provider, system, or policy approaches to improving implementation of OA interventions (e.g. cost-effectiveness studies)
• Public and patient engagement in the co-design of OA management programs (e.g. considerations for addressing equity in care delivery)
• Practices that perpetuate and strategies to mitigate pervasive myths, inconsistencies in clinical guidelines, and overuse of expensive, ineffective or unproven treatments
